The Finish Glam Rockers Reckless Love impressed me very much with their latest record "Spirit" back in 2013. To me it was a huge step into the right direction - more Rock'n'Roll than Pop. Reckless Love had always an image problem.They were often ridiculed as a boygroup. That was partly justified, because especially their second album was hard on the edge to a generic Pop-Rock album. With their fourth record "InVader" they finally crossed that line for the worse.
I really don't get it. I mean these guys are touring and playing their asses off for years now to show everybody that they are a great Rock'n'Roll band. On "Spirit" they captured that feeling of their live shows very well and now three years later they are tearing down everything with an album that sounds like a soulless plastic Pop-Rock record off the shelf.
Honestly I was a bit shocked when I listened to "InVader" for the first time. I don't know how drunk they were or what stuff they've smoked while writing and recording this album. It's obvious that they wanted to focus on a mainstream audience with Teenagers as their main target group. Backstreet Boys with guitars - that's how you can describe this album. On the other hand you can't deny that Reckless Love still have the ability to write songs that are catchy as hell. I love catchy songs, I also like some kind of Pop influence. There are tons of bands in the Melodic Rock genre who are influenced by Pop music as well. That's not the point. The thing is that Reckless love turn it to the maximum and they simply overdo it this time. Electronic, simply not hand-made, elements go hand in hand with voice-over effects and all other things you would expect from all those plastic Pop acts. Listen for example to the song "Child Of The Sun". What the hell is this? It is an absolute earworm, but it is this kind of earworm you don't want to have in your ear, because it is so intrusive. At some point I wasn't really sure whether I'm listening to a Reckless Love song here or if this is a crappy, generic Pop tune that is played to death on each radio station nowadays. Because that's what it is. So, thank you Reckless love for putting one of the most irritating earworms of the last few months into my ear.
You need more examples for this cheap Teenie Pop? Listen to "Scandinavian Girl" or "Keep It Up All Night" - another song you can't get out of your head although you really want to. There is simply too much sugar here and this song could have been a title track for the next FIFA world cup with its "olalalala" - choirs. All those tracks wear out so quickly. I can't imagine that they will stand the test of time in comparison to other songs of this band.
I know that all sounds harsh, but all those moments are so disappointing and unnecessary. Reckless Love are on the top of their game when they dare to rock a bit harder on "InVader", because underneath this cheesy coating you'll also find some very solid and fun rockers like the opener "We Are The Weekend", "Hands", the smooth melodic rocker "Destiny" and the party anthem "Let's Get Cracking", which would have fit perfectly on the previous album. With that said also from a production point of view "InVader" is very solid, because the sound is crystal clear. Also Olli makes again a pretty good figure on the microphone as well as Pepe on guitars. The rhythm section is tight as always and so you can't complain about the skills of the band members or production.
Oh Reckless Love, you guys made it very hard for me to enjoy the full album. It almost feels like some kind of love-hate relationship between me and "InVader": There are moments, which are really worth listening to, but just a few seconds later you feel the need to smash your head against the wall because you can't believe what the band is doing here. Please guys, you are at some point in your career now where you have to decide what you really want: do you want to be a Rock band or a Teenie Pop act? You can't connect both because the target groups are too different. Do you want to be a mainstream act like thousand other musicians or do you feel at home in a particular scene like the Glam Rock genre? "InVader" left me with very mixed feelings, so it's hard to give a final rating here. It is by far not the worst record around and offers you some cool feel good tunes. As always it depends on your own taste. If you can overlook this Euro-Pop elements then you might have fun with most of the songs, because they are all extremely catchy and fit to your next summer party. But if you are a fan of Hard Rock and Metal then this will be very disappointing for you. Even for traditional 80's Glam Rock fans. For the next time I hope the boys increase the dose of Rock'n'Roll much more, because this band has potential. I've seen it live and so I can't accept such a record. They can do better, listen to "Spirit" and you know what I mean.
6/10
Tracklist:
01. We Are The Weekend *
02. Hands *
03. Monster
04. Child Of The Sun
05. Bullettime
06. Scandinavian Girls
07. Pretty Boy Swagger
08. Rock It
09. Destiny *
10. Let's Get Cracking *
11. Keep It Up All Night
* best tracks
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